Dwelling in the Land of Pipe Smokers: Part IV

(Fourth and final post in a four-part series on one of my favorite hobbies: pipe smoking.)

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There are many other gadgets and consumables, too, that make the hobby enjoyable for tinkerers like myself. There are lighters. There are tampers. There are pipe cleaners. There are ash trays.

I’ve had lots of lighters, most of them disappointing. Most lighters are cheaply designed and don’t stand up to even light use over time. I’ve yet to find the perfect pipe lighter, but the quest goes on. At the present, the most reliable lighter I’ve ever owned was an inexpensive Imco pipe lighter. I have my sights on an Old Boy, the classic high-end pipe lighter, but haven’t had a disposable Franklin to drop on it yet. There are many knock-offs of the Old Boy. I purchased one, made by Prometheus. It was a purchase filled with regret. After only a month or two, it started leaking butane. The company said they would fix or replace it, but I’d have to pay $50 for the replacement. Lame, considering that it was practically new. I also bought a Zippo Multi-Purpose Lighter, which is a long butane lighter of notable quality that I bought for $10 at Target. That’s probably the best lighter money I’ve spent yet, since it was cheap and is still working.

Tampers are another thing. You have the classic Czech tool, which is perfectly functional but lacks aesthetic charm. My choice is a Brebbia pipe nail, which I’ve owned for a number of years already. I paid about $1 for it. It has a simplistic charm that I find appealing.

Pipe cleaners are not just for kindergarten arts and crafts class. They have a real and practical use, too, thus their name. For my money, there’s no better pipe cleaner than Dill’s. You can find these at some drug stores and an occasional grocery store in the high security cigarette area for $1-2 per package. They are all cotton, very absorbent and just the right size for a normal pipe stem. There is an art to passing a pipe cleaner through a bent pipe, which I’ve mastered for all the bents I own, and the Dill’s cleaner is stiff enough to make the passage without much ado.

My ash tray is a small black skillet that I purchased at Cracker Barrel, about 5” in diameter. I glued a cork knocker in the center and plastic feet on its bottom. It’s great to use because of its size and the handle, making it easy to move here and there when your hand is full of other gadgetry.
One of the things that continues to attract me to pipe smoking is how challenging it is to achieve the perfect smoking experience. Adjusting the variables here and there, packing the bowl just right, knowing when not to oversmoke a bowl, knowing when tobacco is too moist or not moist enough--all of these things contribute to how the tobacco burns and how you should puff. Experiencing the perfect smoke consistently is still just out of reach, but I hit it often enough that I keep trying, trying to pay attention to all the little details that contribute to a more perfect pipe experience. I hope that I never arrive. If I do, the journey will surely be at an end, and as it is, I do love the journey.

(Pictured: Czech tool, Imco pipe lighter, Brebbia pipe nail and the humble cork knocker)

Dwelling in the Land of Pipe Smokers: Part III

(Part Three in a four-part series on one of my favorite hobbies: pipe smoking.)

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As for tobaccos, satisfaction has been more elusive. There are several blends I have grown fond of over the years, yet it is much more difficult for me to find satisfaction in tobaccos than it is for pipes. I'm relatively satisfied with my pipe collection as it is. I add one to it every now and then, often to commemorate a special occasion. My wife bought me a pipe of my choosing for Christmas last year in Grapevine. I just bought my most recent pipe at a fabulous pipe shop in Mill Valley, CA while we were on vacation. If I never bought another pipe, I would be quite happy with what I have. Yet tobacco is a consumable. It disappears over time and has to be replaced.
The plethora of choices of different tobaccos is overwhelming. And considering that you might spend $15-20 for a 50g tin of quality tobacco, you don't necessarily want to be buying something you won't like after one or two bowls. Yet experimentation is the only way to discover a future favorite.
One of the first things you discover is the complexity of pipe tobacco. The first level of appreciation of a tobacco is how it is in the pouch or tin. How it smells, how it looks. Then there’s how it performs in the bowl. How it burns, how it tastes, how it smells as it’s burning. The aroma a tobacco creates as it’s burning is called its “room note”.
 Every fact about pipes, tobacco and pipe smoking has its believers and skeptics. For example, I posted a response to a thread on alt.smokers.pipes about moisturizing bulk tobaccos. I mentioned that I had my bulk tobaccos stored in bail-lid jars, the kind with the rubber gasket to make it air tight. I also mentioned that I keep the tobacco at optimal moisture by putting a slice of apple in the jar with the tobacco. The moisture from the apple moisturizes the tobacco over time, and the apple eventually ends up looking like a leathery piece of mummy skin. Another fellow responded to my post, stating that this would make mold grow on the tobacco. I could have responded with a treatise on the biology of molds and spores and how they are generally unrelated to apple slices. I could have also brought real evidence into play, mentioning that this had been my preferred method of tobacco storage for years and that I had never seen the first sign of mold. Instead, I just let it drop.
Taking this disparity of opinion into account, there are many different "genres" of pipe tobacco, and many differing opinions as to what is good, what is bad, and what is a little of both. Some love English blends--the stronger the Latakia the better. Some exclusively smoke aromatics--the sweeter the blend, the sweeter the smoke. Some would sooner smoke sawdust than the bulk blends from brick-and-mortar tobacco shops. Others swear by these same blends, knowing no other tobacco than that which comes from a big glass jar or a Ziploc baggie.
One of the most peculiar things about pipe smoking is how I, as the smoker, can’t discern the room note whilst I am smoking. I could smell tobaccos that others might be smoking, assuming I wasn’t smoking the same thing, but I couldn’t smell my own tobacco as it burns. Strange. Another peculiarity is how tobaccos taste. They rarely taste like they smell. For me, this is fine. I just have to enjoy the tobacco on two different, unrelated levels.
(Pictured:  My most recent pipe acquisition, a Stanwell Nordic #254; also below, some of the tinned tobaccos I'd recommend--Blue Note, MacBarens' Vanilla Cream, and G. L. Pease's Haddo's Delight and Piccadilly [the only English blend I've ever liked]. My source for most of the tinned tobaccos I've smoked is cupojoes.com. I also bought my Peterson Aran 80S there.)


(To be continued.)

Dwelling in the Land of Pipe Smokers: Part II

(Part Two in a four-part series on one of my favorite hobbies: pipe smoking.)

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A quantum leap in my education occurred when I stumbled upon alt.smokers.pipes, a pipe smoker's group and chat room. The chat room offered real-time fellowship with pipe smokers and connections with fellows literally across the globe who revere the briar and the sacred weed. I learned that there are indeed many more pipe smokers out there--people dedicated to keeping the art of pipes and everything pipe-centric alive. Many of these fellows were PhDs, whilst I was just beginning work on my Bachelor’s degree in Pipery. However, it was a friendly place, full of camaraderie, and upon arriving, I knew I belonged.
Pipe smoking, I found, was relaxing. It reminded me of fishing. I realize that is not a logical link, but for me the similarities lie in that while I am either fishing or smoking a pipe, I am thinking of little else. My mind disengages from the outside world and all that exists at the time is within the circle including me, my pipe and my pipe gadgets. For fishing, the circle is a little bigger, as it has to include the lure/bait and the 30-or-so feet of monofilament between us both.
I began buying new pipes, new tobaccos and the gadgetry of pipe smoking. I began educating myself on the things I needed to know to avoid tongue bite, the plague of all new pipe smokers and the one thing that turns most novices against the hobby. I began to learn the differences in tobaccos and blends, finding some I liked and some I didn't like so much.
Eventually, I built myself a pipe cabinet, based on my own original design. It remains one of  the woodworking projects of which I'm most proud. My pipe collection has grown over the years, now consisting of 40-or-so different pipes. Some are in my regular rotation, some slip in on rare occasions, and others I never smoke yet don't want to get rid of. I bought some new and some used, some online and others from brick-and-mortar locales. I have my favorites, for sure. Some are sentimental favorites. Others smoke well. Yet others I like because of their looks. Many of my favorites exist in two or more of these categories.
Pipes have an interesting history, reaching back hundreds of years, yet they still have a modern appeal for many, myself included. What can I say? I love pipes!
(Pictured: Savinelli #611 Sandblast; another from my collection)
(To be continued.)